In mid-December, another friend from Virginia came to visit, a second Jessica. (The two are friends, I might add, and the first introduced me to the second.) We toured around quite a bit, going to Kyoto, Nara, and even up to Tokyo. The weather in Tokyo wasn't the greatest, a bit wet and drizzly one day, but we still walked around quite a bit and got in some of the sights, like Rainbow Bridge (a first for me), Ueno Park, and Shibuya. She departed just before my vacation began, leaving on the 21st. I had to work the 22nd, then pack, then I left myself on the morning of the 23rd.
I arrived in the afternoon and had to endure a nearly two-hour bus ride to my hostel. Thankfully, the hostel was up the reviews I'd read online: clean, new(ish), comfortable. I showered and went out for a movie, a rare treat since I try to avoid spending the $20 USD Japanese theaters charge. The movie, Twilight, was not so good, maybe even bad, but I enjoy going to the theater, so I had a nice time.
The next day my friend and former student Nina met me with her friend Bong and took me out to some of the sights around Bangkok. I should note that although I visited Bangkok eight years ago, I didn't take in any of the sights, not being in the best of mindsets at the time. So, first we went to the Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. These are really great. Thai people can enter for free, but I don't recall how much I paid, but I think it was around $10, a good deal for all that you can see. The temples, the architecture is so different from Japan: lots of color, gold leafing (or paint?), glass tiles, painted tiles, carved figurines.
Japan tends toward the extreme of minimalism, which, I must admit, is an aesthetic I lean toward, but I found it fascinating to see another culture's temples, their vibrancy. It's telling about the peoples, too, who made these things: Japanese people are reserved, whereas Thai people tend toward much more lively, outgoing personalities. "The Land of Smiles" is Thailand's nickname, and appropriately so, in my opinion. Bong, whom I'd never met before this day, is quite the tour guide as well: he remembers much of the history and mythology of Buddhism in Thailand, and helped to explain much of what we saw. This informative narrative continued through this day and the next. Very nice.After that, we went to the Temple on the Golden Mount, which houses some ancient Buddhist relics (I think a bone allegedly of Buddha himself). The views of the city from here are quite good. For reasons unknown, traffic was incredibly bad this day, and so I asked to just be dropped off and they made their way home (which took two hours!).
I met up with a friend of a friend from Japan, Katie, that evening. We'd arranged to stay at the same hostel. And another friend, MaryEllen (Mellen), would be coming the next evening. Katie and I went to the Suan Lum Night Bazaar for dinner, then retired early.
Christmas day took us to Ayutthaya, the ancient capital of Thailand, an island at intersection of three rivers about an hour's drive north of Bangkok.
This was the capital for something like four hundred years before it was finally overrun by the Burmese about two hundred fifty years ago. There are numerous temple ruins, and you can easily feel the age of the place from the weathering of the stone and brick there. In certain areas, huge lights are mounted on the ground to illuminate some of the structures: apparently there was some kind of festival a few weeks before where they lit up these structures; too bad I couldn't have seen it. In addition to walking around these ruins, we took a short ride on an elephant...not the most comfortable of rides, I must say, but a novelty, no doubt.
Lunch that day was at a nice little riverside restaurant, where Bong ordered us all river prawns the size of small lobsters. Their meat was a bit tough, but I enjoyed it all the same, along with all the other dishes. I love Thai food. Of course, Nina stole the bill and paid for us all. That is in addition to having her company van pick us up and drive us up there, drive us to lunch, and then drive us back to the city and our hostel! Nina was a fantastic host.
That evening Mellen arrived and the three of us took in another movie, Pride and Glory, which was not quite terrible, but not nearly as good as it could have been. SIGH.
The next day was taken up mostly with getting to the bus station and waiting for our buses. We were all heading south, but to different bodies of water: Katie and Mellen were going to Koh Tao to learn scuba diving and I was heading to Railay to go climbing on its famous limestone sea cliffs. We arrived at the bus station around 1:30, got our tickets, and then waited around; the bus station was pretty far out of the city center, and we didn't want to risk traffic problems trying to get back. So, five and a half hours later, I was getting on my bus for a 12 hour journey. YUCK. You might recall my bad night on the overnight bus to Tokyo; this wasn't much better, the only good thing was the bus wasn't hot like the Tokyo bus. Nevertheless, 12 hours later, I was getting out in Krabi.
From there it was a cab ride to the pier, then a longtail boat to Tonsai and my room.
I have to admit I was a bit worried, walking up this rutted, dirt road from the beach to my bungalow, but upon finding it and finding it clean, I felt better. I showered, read a bit, had some lunch, then walked down to the climbing school where I signed up for a three day class and a day of Deep Water Soloing (to be explained shortly).The class for me was mainly about learning how to lead climb and belay. Lead climbing is where you clip the rope into bolts as you climb a route; this is differnt from top-roping where you have a rope anchored above you. Leading is harder, as you have to clip in, and thus have plan where you're going as well as balance in certain places while clipping in. Also, while leading, if you fall, you fall to the last bolt you clipped, whereas when top-roping you'll usually only fall a little from wherever you are. As for belaying, it's also different depending on which type you're doing. Lead belaying entails more concentration, as you have to know when to give slack (so that the climber can ascend) and when to take in slack, so that the climber won't fall as far; mostly it's the careful giving of slack that one does. For top-roping, you just have to take in slack as the climber ascends, not much to it.
So, on this afternoon, the other guy in the small class, Chris, and I learned the different knots we needed to know, how to clip in properly, theory on how to belay, and how to abseil down from a point by ourselves (in short, how to belay myself down after a semi-complicated shifting of ropes). The next day, we went climbing. We started easy, moved up to some stuff a bit harder, and I happily top-roped a semi-difficult route called Muay Thai that afternoon.
The day after, I went Deep Water Soloing (DWS). DWS is going soloing (climbing with no ropes) on sea cliffs above deep water, thus the name. I had a great time doing it, and although I thought it would be a sort of rest day, I ended up climbing pretty hard just the same. We went to one cliffside, climbed for an hour and a bit, during which time I made a few attempts to get up a wall and then a stalactite, finally making it when I finally understood the shouted instructions of the guide that the next hold was on the stalactite and not the wall. It was quite an exciting move to pull off, requiring a bit of a lunge upward and a reach up and back, knowing that if I didn't get the hold, I was probably going to fall about 35 feet.
That may not seem like much reading it here, especially if you think it's just into water, but I assure you that it's high enough, and falling when you're not ready (as opposed to jumping when you are) is quite scary. That said, I made it and made it up the stalactite, but didn't climb much higher, as I felt it was already a long way to jump.We broke for lunch shortly after, and then went out climbing again. This time I was out on the first boat, following a Swiss man named Reto up a long stalactite. I probably wouldn't have gone as far as I did if he hadn't been leading the way, but machismo goes a long way to making men dumb, and I followed past the point where I really felt safe jumping. He estimated it was 20 meters. I think it was farther. You watch the video and decide. (Sorry, the video is sideways!)
One of the best things about this trip, however, was the people I met. I met Reto, the Swiss guy, Mikel and Jeana, a French couple, San, a lady from Singapore, and Matej, a Slovenian guy. They were a nice bunch of people, and I ended up hanging out with them the next few evenings.
The next day was more climbing with the class, and learning a few more things, like how to belay someone up after I've lead a route. (Some climbs are multi-pitch, meaning much longer than one rope is, so you have to climb up to a point and then have someone come up after you, then climb on to the next point, and so on.) I was able to lead some more difficult routes this time, but was defeated by a route too difficult for me, coming in at a rating of 5.11. But I did lead that Muay Thai route (instead of top-roping), which is a 5.11a, as well as a pretty difficult route called Bad Boy, rated about the same.
My last day climbing, New Year's Eve, I went out with Reto and climbed a lot. By the end of the day, as I attempted my last route, a 5.11d, but couldn't make it. After four days in a row of pretty hard climbing, I just didn't have any energy left. Sad that I had to end on that note, but it definitely left me with a desire to go back, stay a few weeks, and finish some 5.12s. Someday. Someday.
That night I hung out with Matej, Mikel, Jeana, and Dan and Anais, an Englishman and a French woman, and Florianna, a Swiss woman. It was a tame night, but fun, with good people. I had to leave the next morning, so I went to bed shortly after midnight.
I had a ticket for an overnight train back to Bangkok, but the journey to the train station was LONG. First a longtail boat from Railay to Ao Nang, waiting, then a van to a small terminal, more waiting, then another van to another terminal, yet more waiting, before finally a bus to the station after about 7 hours. Unfortunately, I'd picked up a bug and began to feel quite ill by the time I got to the station, and I was lucky to not vomit. Once I got on the train and into my sleeping berth, I was ok. I slept most of the 12 hours back up to Bangkok, went to the hostel, showered, and met up with Nina and another friend of hers, B, who took me out shopping.
Nina, B, and I went to Pantip Plaza, a multi-level building where they have everything for a computer you could want, from the smallest components like processor fans to brand-new Sony and Apple laptops. I bought some DVDs. That's all I'll say. From there we had lunch and then went to the aquarium, which had good displays and excellent information (in English!). I went back early and took it easy, feeling tired and rundown from the bug I'd picked up, which had stopped making me want to vomit, but would continue working on my bowels until I got back to Japan.
Katie and Mellen returned the next morning, and Nina and B took us to the Chatuachak Weekend Market. There may be more impressive markets in the world, but I've not seen it. And by impressive, I mean size and breadth of goods. It's so big, I'm sure we saw less than an eighth of it in our three hours or so of wandering. If you see something you want, excepting ubiquitous items like Thai silk scarves, you really need to buy it there, because unless you have an exceptional sense of direction, you probably won't find the vendor again. It's a fun place to go, and I really wish I'd been feeling better. In any case, I got a lot of shopping done.
The next morning I was on a flight to Hong Kong. Here is a city that feels romantic. I don't know why. Maybe it was the clear skies and crisp, clear air with temperatures right around 70. Maybe it was the sudden appearance of couples hugging and kissing, so unlike Japan. I didn't meet any women to melt my heart, but I certainly felt that it would have been a great place to have a woman with me. Nevertheless, I checked into my small guesthouse room, a tiny thing but one that had its own toilet and shower, for which I was happy. I spent the next two days walking around Kowloon, where I was staying, and Hong Kong Island, just across the water. Not as cheap as I'd thought it would be, certainly nothing like Thailand, but still cheaper than Japan...but that's not saying a lot. I had a good time there, but the bug I'd picked up kept me from doing as much as I might have otherwise. I've written too much already, so I'll just post some pictures now.
Sorry for the L-O-N-G entry. I wish you all a Happy 2009.
Aloha.
